Out of the Red

By Richard Prebble

The untold story of New Zealand's biggest business turnaround

"That spring morning I walked into the Prime Minister's office still fairly green. I walked out the biggest businessman in New Zealand history—as chief executive of twenty billion dollars worth of business (in todays terms about one hundred billion). I was in charge of the country's air, road and rail systems, its national post office and phone company, half the country's forests, all the Landcorp farms, an insurance company, a bank, a computer company, all the nation's electricity generation and the national grid, air traffic control, a property company and a printing works."

Written by former Member of Parliament Richard Prebble, this is the story of one of the biggest business turnarounds ever: how changing the culture was the key to turning 21 government trading departments into profitable businesses.